Hinged air tube access door



5, 1970 R. KRAMER HINGED AIR TUBE ACCESS DOOR Filed July 8, 1968 lllnllllL lllllllll I N VEV'TOR. Rater? L./(ramer United States Patent 3,525,482 HINGED AIR TUBE ACCESS DOOR Robert L. Kramer, 6818 Broeuing Road, Baltimore, Md. 21222 Filed July 8, 1968, Ser. No. 743,077 Int. Cl. B65g 51/04 U.S. Cl. 243-38 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for an automatic air tube system, the device being cylindrical in shape, the top portion being hinged to the bottom portion by an elongated hinge. This device also has snap catches to fasten with.

This invention relates to automatic air tube systems and more particularly to a hinged air tube access door for air tube systems.

It is therefore the main purpose of this invention to provide a hinged air tube access door which may be located at strategic points in the system, such as at a loop section or at a receiving station and will allow access to the system in order to extract one or more carriers that are immobile.

Another object of this invention is to provide a hinged air tube access door which may also serve as an air intake to relieve portions of the system that have lost suction due to stalled carriers and will thus serve as a means of swiftly putting the system back into operation when there is an overload of carriers or a defective carrier within the system. Without the use of the present invention many hours of time is consumed in order to correct a jammed condition. When correcting a jammed condition, sections of tubing must be unbolted. The carriers must be removed from the tubing, sometimes as many as twenty or more, after which the section must be bolted together securely so as to form an airtight seal. With this hinged air tube access door, the cover may be quickly snapped open and two thirds of the inside exposed. The rubber seal along the edges insure an airtight seal when closed.

Other objects of this invention are to provide a hinged air tube access door which is simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture, rugged in construction, easy to use and efiicient in operation.

These and other objects will become readily apparent from a study of the following specification together with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a horizontal front view of the present invention shown partly broken away;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse view taken along the lines 22 of FIG. 1 and "Ice FIG. 3 is a fragmentary rear view of FIG. 1.

According to this invention, a hinged air tube access door 10 is provided with a cylindrical member 11 to which is attached a concaved member 12 which forms the door cover of the device 10. The bottom member 11 and the concaved member 12 forms a cylindrical body 13 when device 10 is closed. The open ends of device 10 are secured to airline 18 with coupling 14. To members 11 and 12 are secured an elongated hinge 15 which allows for ac cess to the interior of the device 10 by the unfastening of snap catches 16 which will allow member 12 to be lifted upwards. When the cover is closed a rubber gasket 17 forms an air seal.

In use, member 12 is lifted up by unfastening catches 16 in order to extract a carrier or carriers in the air system when necessary.

It will be noted that the herein described device when applied topassenger-type pneumatic tubes will serve the same purpose as a safety lock with the aid of a hydraulic lift which will be adapted to the cover.

What I now claim is:

1. A hinged air tube access door device for placement in strategic locations in automatic air tube systems which will allow access to the system in order to extract one or more carriers that, are immobile, comprising a cylindrical body member, a hingeable cover carried by said body member, a pair of snap catches carried by said device with hinge means to connect the two members of said body of said device, the ends of said cylindrical body of said device are coupled to a portion of said airline of said system, said cover member of said cylindrical body is hinged to the second member by an elongated hinge in order that said cover member may be lifted upwards without departing from the bottom portion of said device, a rubber seal means provided for said cover member at its edges where it meets the edges of the main body member of said device, said snap catches are spaced apart and allow for rendering said cover stationary until it is desired to open said device to remove an immobile carrier therefrom and said rubber covering the edges of the hingeable portion of said device provides for an airtight seal in order that said device may function properly without a drop in air pressure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,649,752 11/1927 Stone 285373 1,77 6,697 9/ 1930 McGuinness 243-3 8 FOREIGN PATENTS 393 l/ 1891 Great Britain.

HARVEY C. HORNSBY, Primary Examiner 

